design

Tech startup Coleridge Design Associates is trying to raise $45,000 on Kickstarter to manufacture a sleek-looking and transparent-sounding desktop speaker system, the aCube BMR. I've covered Kickstarter projects before, but this time I had a chance to listen to the product, and the sound definitely piqued my interest.

The aCube uses an advanced 4.5-inch BMR (Balanced Mode Radiator) driver mounted in handmade clear-cast acrylic 6.5-inch cube enclosures. The $180 speaker houses a stereo 20-watt Class-D amplifier, but if you want stereo sound, you have to buy a second speaker (without the amp) for $120. Optional at … Read more

LAS VEGAS--We may never be able to replace the splendor of painting on a real canvas with store-bought pigments, but the supreme accuracy of a modern touch-screen computer can offer an artistic experience that would even make Dali's head spin.

Deep within the maze-like setup of Sony's booth at CES 2013, I sat down with artist April Wong as she painted a woman using the ArtRage drawing program on a Sony Vaio Duo 11 hybrid tablet. Stroke by stroke, a realistic image emerged from Wong's stylus, and I couldn't help but find myself surprised that the visage appearing on the tablet looked as good, if not better, than a real painting. No mess, either!… Read more

The yardstick used for Intel's new power-frugal chips is being questioned in article posted by Ars Technica.

The article, titled "Power saving through marketing: Intel's '7 watt' Ivy Bridge CPUs," asserts that Intel may have been over-aggressive with its power-efficiency claims.

More specifically, the 7-watt Ivy Bridge processors Intel announced on Monday at CES are actually specified by Intel on its site as 13 watts, the article says.

"The 7-watt number advertised during Intel's keynote yesterday is actually from a new metric, 'scenario design power' (SDP), which purports to measure how much power the … Read more

It starts with two empty rooms, but with your creative efforts becomes your dream home. Home Design Story is an iOS game that lets you experience all the joy and pain of interior and exterior home design. While it's offered free of charge, you will need to earn coins and gems to purchase items and the process can be a little slow. You may be tempted to spend your own money to speed up the process.

Home Design Story requires two things from the player: creativity and spare time to play. The game is centered around buying items from … Read more

Apple fanatics may find themselves foaming at the mouth over some retro conceptual Mac computer photos featured in Hartmut Esslinger's book Design Forward: Creative Strategies for Sustainable Change.

The opus, released today in limited quantities, explores Esslinger's journey as a German designer who worked with the likes of Sony, Louis Vuitton, and others before moving on to Apple in 1982. Apple hired Esslinger (and his company Frog Design) to transform the successful yet scattered startup into a brand with a globally recognizable design mantra. … Read more

Sweet Home 3D for Mac is an interior design application that lets you lay out your furniture (or even your house). Sweet Home 3D for Mac is a free download and installs easily.

Sweet Home 3D for Mac lets you arrange and rearrange furniture in a framework house so you can get the optimum layout. You start using Sweet Home 3D for Mac by laying out the dimensions of your room, floor, or house. The more accurately this is done the better, as a few inches can make a huge difference in layout potential. After that, you can grab images … Read more

I'm not a big fan of the subscription pricing model for software, especially software on the critical path for production work. I like knowing that in five years I won't still be paying for software that I didn't really need to upgrade, or that if Adobe suddenly decides a subscription is worth $99/month, I'm not caught flat-footed looking for a Photoshop replacement because I don't really own the version I've been using. But some people like it, some don't; some think it's overpriced, others think it's a steal. (Read our survey results on that.) … Read more

In 2012, technology design went square, and I don't mean boring. Rather, the past year signaled a shift to sharp 90-degree angles as a design element. By itself, that change may not seem significant, but when you consider that so much in tech -- from hardware to software to Web design -- was built on the concept of rounded corners, you see that it is a notable design shift. Apple didn't follow the pack (Steve Jobs wasn't a fan of square corners), but plenty of its rivals did.

Microsoft was the biggest promoter of square corners, not … Read more